QUEENSBURY -- A longtime medical instruments maker is cutting 20 percent of its work force, about 200 jobs, at its Queensbury catheter manufacturing plant.

C.R. Bard, based in Murray Hill, N.J., said the job reductions would begin in the next few weeks and would continue through much of 2011. Spokesman Scott Lowry said the cuts would "improve the overall cost structure and enhance efficiency" at the plant.

"From our standpoint, it's really a competitiveness issue," he said.

The plant's 60 temporary employees likely would be the first to be laid off, he said. The plant employs 960 people, including the temporary workers.

The jobs being eliminated are, "for the most part," production jobs, Lowry said.

C.R. Bard has been associated with the Glens Falls area since at least 1941, Lowry said, when it handled sales and distribution for locally based United States Catheter and Instrument Corp. Bard acquired the company in 1966.

"The plant is still an important manufacturing center for Bard," Lowry said. "This is more of a rightsizing."

C.R. Bard is one of a half dozen companies that produce disposable catheters in Warren and Washington counties.

Lowry said severance packages and other assistance would be provided to the affected employees.

C.R. Bard reported on Jan. 31 that its fourth-quarter revenues had climbed 6 percent to $717.1 million, and that net income increased 29 percent to $136.2 million.